Italy, Genua

by Oskar Conle and Frank Hennemann (1998)

In September 1998 we visited the „Museo Civico di Storia Naturale“ in Genova (Italy)in order to investigate the type material in their collection. In the evenings while we were there we took advantage of searching the surrounding mountains for phasmids. We followed a narrow road into the mountains, and it was only after coming to the first footpath, that we were successful. On both sides the footpath was fenced with wild bramble bushes on which we found hundreds of Bacillus rossius (ROSSI, 1788) at different stages. There were brown and green specimens and due to the fact that among large numbers of females no male was found, this stock was presumed to be parthenogenetic. The living female insects which were brought back to Germany for breeding purposees survived quite a long time and produced inumerable eggs. The newly hatched nymphs however proved very difficult to maintain and refused to feed.